YANGON, Myanmar – A top U.S. official was due to meet Myanmar’s detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday, after expressing concerns about the legitimacy of the military-run country’s upcoming elections.

Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asia, started off his two-day visit by saying Washington was deeply concerned about the political environment the ruling junta has created in the run-up to Myanmar’s first election in 20 years.

Campbell arrived Sunday and met with senior junta officials in the remote administrative capital of Naypyitaw before flying Monday to Yangon, the biggest city. He was due to meet Suu Kyi in the afternoon at a government guesthouse near her lakeside villa, diplomats and officials said.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner has been detained, mostly under house arrest, for 14 of the past 20 years.

Suu Kyi’s longtime opposition party, the National League for Democracy, was disbanded Friday after effectively boycotting the election by declining to register for it, as required by a new election law. The NLD and other democracy advocates have called the election a sham. The NLD won Myanmar’s last election in 1990, but the army never allowed it to take power.

“We are troubled by much of what we have seen. We have very real concerns about the election and the environment that has been created,” Campbell told a news conference Sunday during a stopover in the Thai capital, Bangkok. The visit is Campbell’s second in six months to Myanmar.

Among the officials he met Sunday were Foreign Minister Nyan Win, Information Minister Kyaw San and Science and Technology Minister U Thaung — Myanmar’s former envoy in Washington — who is the point person for the U.S.-Myanmar engagement.

Details of the talks and the focus of Campbell’s meeting with Suu Kyi were not immediately made public.

Senior officials of the NLD, who were also scheduled to meet Campbell, said they were not optimistic that his visit would accomplish much…

YANGON (AFP) – A top US diplomat was due to meet Myanmar’s detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday as the ruling junta faces criticism over preparations for its first elections in two decades.

President Barack Obama’s administration has made dialogue with adversaries a signature policy and launched dialogue with Myanmar after concluding that longstanding Western attempts to isolate the regime had borne little fruit.

Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, was scheduled to meet Suu Kyi and members of political parties as part of his two-day trip to the military-ruled country, a Myanmar government official said.

Campbell arrived in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw on Sunday and held discussions with officials including Information Minister Kyaw Hsan.

Bangkok (Mizzima) – A senior American diplomat is set to visit Burma today to try to kick-start Washington’s lagging engagement policy with the junta, according to Burmese officials.

The US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, Dr. Kurt Campbell, was scheduled to start a two-day visit to Burma today, according to government officials in the capital, Naypyidaw. But senior US officials have been tight-lipped, refusing to confirm the visit or give details despite repeated requests.

But US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said in Washington on Friday that the planned visit would only go ahead if the diplomat’s request to see the detained opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was granted.

US State Department Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell will meet detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and colleagues of her former National League for Democracy (NLD) in Rangoon on Monday, NLD spokesman Nyan Win reported.